City to Demolish Houses for Police Station; Won’t Release Site Selection Study

December 28, 2018

Author: Rachel Barnhart

The City of Rochester wants to spend $500,000 to purchase seven houses and three vacant lots to construct the Goodman Section police station and Southeast neighborhood service center. Legislation has been submitted to City Council for approval.

Six houses are on Laura St. and one is on East Main St. Each resident will be given $1,000 to cover moving expenses.

The city would demolish the properties. It’s not clear how much the new building construction will cost.

City Council has approved spending $2.3 million to buy land for the Lake Section office. It’s anticipated Genesee Section will be located at Bulls Head. The other sections are downtown and Clinton, which have permanent offices.

Despite the fact the new patrol offices will cost millions of dollars, the public is in the dark about how these sites were chosen and precisely what the new offices will cost. Last year, City Council approved a $150,000 study by Architectura PC to determine the sites of the section offices. The city recently denied our open records request for the study, saying it’s still in draft form.